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<h1><a href="index.html">Home</a> > About ReactOS</h1>
<h2>About ReactOS</h2>
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			General public will <span style="font-style: italic">never</span> switch to Unix.
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			ReactOS project since 1996
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<p>
ReactOS is an effort to create a Free Software replacement for Microsoft Windows(TM) that is compatible with existing hardware and software!
</p>
<p>
 
</p>
<p>
<strong><a href="download.html">ReactOS 0.3.7</a></strong> is still in <a href="about_roadmap.html"><strong>under heavy development</strong> (alpha stage)</a> and is <strong>not ready for everyday use.</strong>
</p>
<p>
You can <strong>help the ReactOS </strong>project by <strong>doing word-of-mouth advertising</strong>, <strong><a href="foundation_donate.html">donate some money</a></strong> to the ReactOS Foundation or  <strong>spend some time on the ReactOS</strong> project and <a href="dev.html">contribute</a> in one of various ways (<a href="../bugzilla/">patch</a>, <a href="../wiki/index.php/Translation_Introduction">translation</a>, <a href="../forum/">community forum</a>, etc.).
</p>
<p>
 
</p>
<h3><strong>
What is ReactOS?</strong></h3>
<p>
ReactOS is  a free and open-source operating system based on the Windows NT  architecture design, providing support for existing applications and drivers and an alternative to the current dominant consumer and server operating systems.
</p>
<h3><strong>Why re-implement NT? </strong></h3>
<p>
First of  all, the 'Windows' the general public knows is actually just one part of the  modern Windows NT operating system. They usually mean the Win32 subsystem, a layer that sits upon the NT kernel, providing the user and application interface. 
</p>
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			"NT is still around, known as XP and Vista"
			</div>
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</table>
<p>
Most people  think of 'NT' as 'WinNT 4', while in reality the term NT is equal to the NT series,  which ranges from version 3 over NT5 (2000, XP, 2003) to NT6 (Vista).<br />
The NT  architecture was designed by a team lead by David Cutler, a former  lead developer of VMS. It took them more than 4 years to combine the best of  UNIX, VMS and OS/2 and create the NT architecture.
</p>
<h3><strong>What about UNIX?</strong></h3>
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	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>
			<div class="catchyquotes" align="center" style="margin-right: 10px">
			"For every OS <br />
			there is  an equal<br />
			and opposite,<br />
			ReactOS" 
			</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
MacOS X,  Linux, BSD flavors and other UNIX derivates share a common heritage based  on a more than three decades old design of a simple basic operating system,  that has evolved over time into a complex structure.<br />
Modern  incarnations like Mac OS X put a fancy graphical user interface on top of UNIX, to  hide system details and focus mainly for beginners and likely advanced users  are left out in the rain. In contrast, various Linux and BSD flavors have been  put together originally for server usage and are therefore very console centric.  Most advanced features cannot be accessed from the basic graphical user  interface. Almost all  UNIX flavors retain some of the original design flaws and binary compatibility between various versions is usually non-existent. 
</p>
<p>
In theory there  are a few UNIX standards like POSIX but in practice the standards are old and cover only the  basic operating system and the terminal environment. Other standards such as the Linux Standard Base are often not implemented faithfully. As there is no user  interface standard nor a standard API, most people still have to use command  line applications or fight through the GUI mess. Many UNIX derivates use the  de-facto standard X-Window system for graphical output, which might well possess one of the worst designs in software history.<br />
Still,  modern UNIX derivates are trying to catch up with recent innovations and some  of them already possess important features like access control list support.
</p>
<p>
In contrast to UNIX, ReactOS was designed for people familiar and comfortable with the Windows environment. Everything can be done  through the well known Win32 user interface and advanced users are free to automate tasks  with scripts or use the console.
</p>
<h3><strong>Compatible</strong></h3>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" align="right">
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		<tr>
			<td>
			<div class="catchyquotes" style="margin-left: 10px">
			"Change your OS, not  your software!"
			</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
Actually, the  ReactOS project reimplements a state-of-the-art and open NT alike operating  system based on the NT architecture-design. It comes of course with a WIN32  subsystem, NT driver compatibility and a handful of useful applications and  tools.
</p>
<p>
ReactOS  combines the power and strengths of the NT kernel - which is well known for its  extensibility, portability, reliability, robustness, performance and  compatibility â€“ with Win32 compatibility.
</p>
<h3><strong>Secure</strong></h3>
<p>
Despite  statements to the contrary, NT is secure by design. It was the first  mainstream operating system with a proper implementation of a very flexible  security model based on access control lists.
</p>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" align="left">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>
			<div class="catchyquotes" style="margin-right: 10px">
			"It's all about  settings"
			</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
Recent NT  based operating system from Redmond, especially XP, got bad reputation for its  weak default security-settings; mainly, to simplify the transition from Win9x  for both users and legacy applications. This decision alone invalidated many of the security features in NT. ReactOS will incorporate proper default security settings.
</p>
<p>
ReactOS has  been designed for high security; it doesn't share common security flaws with  other operating system. 
</p>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" align="right">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>
			<div class="catchyquotes" style="margin-left: 10px">
			"Viruses, Malware? A minor issue."
			</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
On a closer  view, real computer viruses (which are normal applications) are not widespread  anymore. Most bad software are scripts that target common network software like  browsers and email applications and software that had inbuilt scripting support  like various Office products. <br />
Obviously,  more widespread systems with a large user base are more likely to be attacked by  bad software writers than minor systems like Macintosh and Linux.
</p>
<h3><strong>Lightweight</strong></h3>
<p>
In short,  ReactOS is designed to be powerful and lightweight. You can think of the term  "lightweight" in the good old fashion of Win95, a consistent user interface and  small bundle of very common and useful tools. In contrast, ReactOS offers a lot  more, an up-to-date experience as well as built from scratch on a rock solid NT  core.
</p>
<h3><strong>Open</strong></h3>
<p>
ReactOS is  free software, the source code of the whole system is available for free and it  is licensed under the GNU GPL license.
</p>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" align="left">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>
			<div class="catchyquotes" style="margin-right: 10px">
			"'Free' as in 'free  speech' and as in 'free beer'"
			</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
ReactOS  does not phone home or track your usage, nor does it contain spy-software. As a  matter of fact, other well known competitors are known for such practices. 
</p>
<p>
Life with  other operating systems tends to be a love-hate relationship, with most people  falling strongly on one side or the other. The ReactOS project has a great  community that is well appreciated. 
</p>
<h3><strong>Reliable</strong></h3>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" align="right">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>
			<div class="catchyquotes" style="margin-left: 10px">
			"Open your windows to  freedom"
			</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
In fact,  ReactOS has been written from scratch since 1996, a rock solid NT  re-implementation, and therefore a reliable and robust operating system for  tasks ranging from embedded micro computer to personal computer, workstations  to server cluster, mainframes and super computers.<br />
ReactOS  incorporates many design decisions from other operating system families like  UNIX,  VMS,  OS/2 and of course NT and is meant as 'the' new platform that serves all.
</p>
<h3><strong>Performance</strong></h3>
<p>
ReactOS is lightweight  and fast and will outperform other bloated operating system in several ways.
</p>
<h3><strong>Portability</strong></h3>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" align="left">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>
			<div class="catchyquotes" style="margin-right: 10px">
			"ReactOS â€“ the XP  successor people asked for"
			</div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
The ReactOS  operating system design is able to provide portability across families of  processors, such as Intel x86 and even provide portability across different  processor architectures, such as CISC and RISC.<br />
There is  only one single OS core, the kernel; porting ReactOS to other architectures  involves 'only' the hardware abstraction layer, the lowest part that talks  directly with the platform hardware.
</p>
<h3><strong>Extensible</strong></h3>
<p>
ReactOS is  flexible and extensible by design. ReactOS is probably one of the most versatile  operating system platform, especially thanks to its NT kernel and the open  source nature.<br />
ReactOS can  be extended with the help of so called "subsystems" to provide support for  legacy applications from other platforms. For example, a POSIX subsystem would  provide compatibility layer with various flavors of UNIX applications. 
</p>
<h3><strong>Object Based</strong></h3>
<p>
ReactOS is  not an object-oriented system in the strictest sense of the term, but it does  use objects to represent internal system resources. Software objects are a  combination of computer instructions and data that model the behavior of  things, real or imagined, in the world.
</p>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" align="center">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td class="catchyquotes">"UNIX file metaphor is  sooooo 1970s"</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<p>
UNIX operating system adhere to the file metaphor, and devices such as printers, storage  devices, keyboards, and monitors all appear as ordinary files to both  programmers and regular users. This simplifies many routine tasks, and is a key  component in the extensibility of the system. The file metaphor has several  downsides and it is known as a bottleneck of UNIX like operating systems.<br />
ReactOS  capitalizes on this metaphor and expands it. It uses an object metaphor that is  pervasive throughout the architecture of the system. Not only are all of the  things in the UNIX file metaphor viewed as objects by ReactOS, but so are  things such as processes and threads, shared memory segments, the global  registry database and even access rights.
</p>
<p>
 
</p>
<p>
<strong>Please bear in mind that ReactOS 0.3.7 is still in alpha stage and is not recommended for everyday use.</strong>
</p>


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